Arts advocates paint the town with glee

Thursday

Aug 29, 2013 at 11:06 AM

Andy Marso

Nicole Emanuel could see that Mary Kennedy, the CEO of the Mid-America Arts Alliance, was busy talking to a reporter after Thursday's official announcement that Kansas' National Endowment for the Arts grant had been restored.

But Emanuel, the founder of an art collective in Overland Park, couldn't help herself. After asking politely if she could interrupt, Emanuel wrapped Kennedy in a hearty hug.

"It's like we've been looking at each other from across a river," Emanuel said. "And now there's a bridge."

The NEA agreed to provide Kansas with $560,800 in matching funds, the state's first grant money from the organization in two years. NEA ended its financial relationship with Kansas temporarily after Gov. Sam Brownback defunded the state arts commission.

But the state is now doling out arts funding again, under a Department of Commerce agency called the Creative Arts Industries Commission. That got NEA back on board and Kennedy announced Thursday that with the NEA backing, her regional organization has reinstated Kansas as a full partner.

"Welcome back," Kennedy said, at a news conference that also included Commerce Secretary Pat George and Labor Secretary Lana Gordon, the chairwoman of the CAIC. "We’re delighted that you're back with us."

Reinstatement in the Mid-America Arts Alliance provides a list of benefits for organizations like Emanuel's and artists across Kansas.

They'll now be eligible for grants, exhibitions and travel stipends to regional arts conferences, including one coming up in October in Austin.

"That would be a program where they could immediately access those resources," Kennedy said.

The new creative arts industries commission began distributing grant money last month, one year after legislators appropriated $700,000 for it. It has now promised about $490,000 to 23 projects statewide.

The new commission is more pointedly focused on art projects that create jobs. Sarah Fizell, the executive director of ARTSConnect in Topeka, said the Topeka Mural Project's goal is to reduce property crime as well as spur economic growth.

The project, which received a $10,000 CAIC grant this week, began when Topeka Police Department Lt. Joe Perry "cold-called" Fizell to see if the two could collaborate to revitalize neighborhoods.

The idea was to find local artists who could paint the outline of the mural and then supervise as people from the neighborhood filled it in, becoming personally invested in the project.

They started with the side of a building at 1120 N.E. Seward in Oakland that was a magnet for graffiti. The mural was finished in early June.

"We haven't seen any graffiti come back up on this particular building and this building was hit a lot," Perry said.

Not only that, Perry said, but homeowners in the surrounding neighborhood have also been spurred to improve their properties, repainting their houses, trimming their trees and keeping their lawns neatly mowed.

Perry and Fizell have targeted Avondale East's NET Reach Center as the site of the next mural and with the sudden influx of grant money Perry plans to be on his computer, using crime stats to determine what other neighborhoods are ripe for a community art project.

"The Topeka Mural Project has the capacity not only to make our community safer and more beautiful, but also to enhance the economic viability of the communities in which these projects are present," Fizell said.

Gordon said that's the type of revitalization she envisioned when she championed the return of state arts funding as a legislator representing Topeka and helped create the CAIC.

"It speaks to the fact that the arts do bring economic value to our communities," Gordon said. "Not only economic value, but quality of life."

George also praised the work of Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, and said he had seen the economic impact of the arts firsthand in the renewal of Topeka's NOTO district.

"Much of that has happened there is because of the arts and it’s pretty cool to see how that has taken place," George said.

George's department also rolled out a new arts license plate that it hopes will add another $100,000 a year in CAIC funding.

The Department of Revenue will start printing the plates when it has 500 orders in place and George's department is aiming for at least 2,000 orders a year at $50 each.

Those interested in reserving a plate can do so at www.kansascommerce.com/artsplate.

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